Islamic nations secure IAEA vote against Israel

By Mark Heinrich
Reuters
Thursday, September 20, 2007; 1:24 PM

VIENNA (Reuters) - Islamic nations, targeting Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal, pushed through a U.N. atomic watchdog resolution on Thursday urging all Middle East nations to renounce atomic weapons.

The vote was 53-2 but with 47 abstentions by Western and developing states, highlighting reservations that the resolution politicized the International Atomic Energy Agency's work.

The decision was non-binding, but symbolized entrenched tensions over Israel's presumed nuclear might and shook the traditional consensus culture in the Vienna-based IAEA.

A similar measure calling on all Middle East nations to adopt IAEA safeguards on nuclear work passed overwhelmingly at last year's IAEA general assembly, with only the United States and Israel opposed, as they were again on Thursday.

Egypt reintroduced the resolution this year seeking full consensus, without a divisive vote, but attached two new clauses that goaded European, other Western and non-aligned developing nations to abstain.

One urged all nations in the Middle East, pending creation of a nuclear weapons-free zone (NWFZ) there, not to make or test nuclear arms or let them be deployed on their soil. The other urges big nuclear arms powers not to thwart a NWFZ in the area.

"The new language threatened to bring new political issues into the IAEA that would ultimately detract from the technical

role the IAEA plays in safeguarding nuclear material," said a Western diplomat whose delegation abstained in the vote.

Israel bemoaned the vote, saying that while a regional NWFZ was a "noble goal" in principle, it was unwise as long as some Arab neighbors continued not to recognize the Jewish state, with Islamist Iran openly calling for its elimination.

Israel is widely assumed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, though it has never confirmed or denied it.

Arab diplomats point to a chronic imbalance of power in the Middle East caused by Israeli might and say it breeds instability and spurs others to seek mass-destruction weaponry.

The only EU nation to vote for the resolution was staunchly anti-nuclear, neutral Ireland. China, India, Russia and Japan also voted yes, as did U.S. foes Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.

Similar resolutions floated each year at the IAEA assembly since 1991 stalled every time in committee until last year when resentment surged over Israel's devastation of south Lebanon in a month-long war with Hizbollah guerrillas there.

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